Day Nineteen

Today has been our last full day in St. Petersburg. Our flight back to Archangelsk leaves tomorrow morning at 10:00am. I think our bodies have become accustomed to a new routine and we are going to have some adjustments this next week. We have been sleeping later than normal each day. We usually eat breakfast around 11:00am, lunch around 4:00pm and supper around 8:00pm. I don't think we will be sleeping in as much from now on, but that is all right. JJ fixed a big batch of blini for breakfast. I started laundry and organizing the things we've spread out across the apartment. We watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on tv. I've become a little less annoyed with the Russian voice overs, but it is still not my favorite. Sometimes I just turn the volume all the way down. We had to visit the ATM, so we decided to make one last walk around our neighborhood. We took the video camera along this trip to film some of our surroundings. I'm grateful we decided to walk around because we saw an amazing sight. This weekend is the celebration of St. Petersburg's 308th birthday. Several blocks of the Nevsky Prospect were blocked off for the celebration. It was a sea of people as far as you could see. I did not take any pictures, but JJ filmed some of the festivities. It was like a fair or 4th of July celebration at home. Vendors were selling wigs, flags, and toys. Other people were painting faces. Every few blocks a stage was set-up with different musical acts performing. Around one square all sorts of booths were in place. It was actually pretty overwhelming trying to take it all in and not get run over at the same time. All that walking made us hungry. We ended up at a cafe we had visited before. We had tried their desserts and coffee, but this time we had chicken and mushroom pasta. It was tasty. =) Now we are back in the apartment waiting on the laundry. The dryer seems to take forever here, but at least we have a dryer, right? We've been in St. Petersburg two weeks now and there are some things I have not adjusted to even in this time. 1. Cigarette smoke everywhere. You simply can't escape it. 2.Very little personal space. I could not count the number of people I've bumped into, but no one seems to mind. People just walk and stand and sit so close to one another. 3.Chives and dill as seasoning. These seem to be the most popular spices. I can handle them, but only in small quantities. Often they seemed to be sprinkled all over our meals. I'm sure I'll find a few more things before we go home. I hesitate to even share these things. I've enjoyed our time here very much, but I wouldn't be truthful it I didn't say I won't miss some things about Russia. Well, Natasha should be calling us soon with more details about tomorrow. Paka for now.